At the Mouth of Madness

I'm now fitting the rules for "At the Mouth of Madness" (TC8, with errata in TC12) into our campaign rules. One thing that's a sticking point - it appears that insanity is only tracked for heroes. Other than the mechanics reasons (different experience track), does anyone know of any reason for henchmen to be excluded from the joy of Mordheim's madness?

Well, maybe it's too much to keep track of for henchmen. Maybe the 1-2 "dies" Serious Injuries result also includes "went insane." However, that only happens when the model is taken OOA - it doesn't include the Insanity Points from failing Fear tests or getting poisoned. Whatchy'all think?

Also, has anyone successfully used these rules before? If so, what was your experience with them and any house rules for them?

I did not use the rules before, however, given that henchmen don't really have a long experience chart, it would mean that many of them will go crazily insane in later stages of the campaign.

Henchmen do not get the exp. for killing in combat, hence there are no boxes to check for their insanity... I think that's the major reason... If you want, you could allways use expanded profiles (the boxes that is) to track their insanity.... that way you could have insane flagelants or dregs.... (wait... aren't they allready? )

then again, having 2 tables on a henchman's profile is kind of a hassle...

Henchmen still get XP, and we can use their existing XP track in reverse. There's no downside to this except they'll get to the end of it way before heroes do - and the Mouth of Madness rules state a model which fills its experience track with Insanity Points (IP) is removed from the roster. I am going to allow henchmen to be affected, but I'm adding this about filling up with IP: "Henchmen, not prone to thinking hard about the whys and wherefores of Mordheim, are not affected by this rule."

The henchmen do have to roll for insanity a little more often than heroes, but they'll only get 4 rolls max, where long-term heroes will roll many more times.

Since flagellants automatically pass all Leadership tests, they'll never gain Insanity from these charts; Dregs are specified to gain IP at 1/2 normal rate.

I'm a little two-minded (usual for me, I know) about At the Mouth of Madness. On one side, I like the thematic idea of the warriors slowly going insane due to Mordheim itself, and I like the balancing idea of gaining madness along with experience. On the other side, it's yet another layer of complication, and exempts certain models/warbands, which messes with the existing balance.

Well, if no-one has used these rules before, has anyone else ever even considered them? If so and you rejected them, why did you?

I just thought you might use the dreg rule for all the henchmen? (gaining half the insanity points instead of a full one?) that way it slows down their insanity a bit, and you could still kick them out of the band by the time they reach full insanity.
Henchmen in my opinion are far less strong of mind to cope with the horrors of mordheim, and therefore more likely to go mad then their leaders, no?

And Yes, I've been tempted by the Idea, but as our group never was steady enough for decent campaigns, we never really got around to it... sadly...

Ah, didn't get that from your previous post - that is a great idea to make it more similar! Since the henchmen don't have quite as many ways to gain insanity as heroes, it might balance out better.

It can be argued both ways about henchmen being affected by madness - leaders are often crazier than their followers due to looking into the abyss, whereas the followers don't think about it and "just follow orders" and try to survive. But yes, followers often have weaker minds than leaders, and when they do look into the abyss...

However, this has convinced me that henchmen should be affected by insanity. Having them gain at 1/2 rate is a winner, to slow down the rate at which they must roll for Insanity (in fact, it makes it slower than hero rates at first).

I'm not yet sure whether henchmen should be out of the band upon filling up with IP, for game balance. That can hit some expensive henchmen pretty hard. Maybe there can be some blanket exclusion which would help offset that.

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One of the early items our group identified as a killer is gaining on IP per failed Fear test - we're limiting that category to 1/scenario.

Also, rather than gaining 1 IP per Critical Wound, we're using gain 1 IP per OOA.

A glaring reason not to use IP for henchmen with the old Insanity tables just finally crossed my addled mind - henchmen groups. Up to five warriors going crazy in the same specific way at the same time? Hmmm, maybe it's "mass hysteria". But that doesn't seem right.

I'll need to make some more general rules about henchmen insanity, which isn't tied to a single model's own circumstances. The easiest idea right now is to only have a henchmen group gain 1 IP if any of the group's models go OOA during a scenario. That'll limit their gain pretty well, especially if coupled with the 1/2 normal IP gain rate.

I'll also want a simpler, more generic and group-focused Insanity table for the henchmen. I can probably use some entries from the Heroes' Insanity table, trawl the web to see if someone else has already come up with something, and then make up a few (if needed) to fill in any gaps.

Due to henchmen groups, they really cannot be removed from the roster for reaching maximum IP. The more I think about it, I wouldn't even remove 1. Got to let this bubble for a while - I'll post back what I come up with when I have something cohesive.